Timberlake 'shocked and appalled'

Pop star Justin Timberlake today distanced himself from Janet Jackson's televised flashing of her breast to 100 million viewers, saying he was "shocked," "appalled and "embarrassed" by the incident.

The 23-year-old all-American singer broke his public silence on the incident that took place during a half-time performance at Sunday's football Super Bowl that has caused outrage and sparked a federal investigation.

"When what happened, happened, I was completely shocked and appalled," he told CBS 2 television news in Los Angeles of the moment when he ripped Jackson's leather bustier and exposed her breast to the world.

"It was, 'Oh my God, oh my God'. I looked at her, they brought a towel up onto the stage and I immediately covered her up."

The young singer said that under a plan devised by Jackson and her choreographer earlier Sunday, he was to pull on the bustier and expose her red lace bra, not her breast.

He said the unprecedented furore over the incident that even sparked reactions from the White House had cast a pall over his image and strongly denied suggestions that he had agreed to expose her mammary as a stunt.

"I was completely embarrassed. I don't feel like I need publicity like that and I wouldn't want to be involved in a stunt, especially not a stunt of this magnitude," he said.

"I do understand how unfortunate this is and I think that it's the most frustrating thing for me," he said, adding that the over-exposure had even shocked his own family.

The incident prompted CBS television, which broadcast the incident live in the United States, to announce Tuesday that it was slapping a longer than usual delay on the telecast of next Sunday's Grammy Awards.

And the rival ABC network followed suit Wednesday, saying that for the first time ever, it would delay the US broadcast of the 76th Annual Academy Awards on February 29 by five seconds to avoid a repeat of the "Nipplegate" scandal."